EU promises single mobile market

February 26, 2013

The EU says it will take treaty powers to force through plans to create a single market for mobile services. Neelie Kroes, Europe’s digital commissioner, told MWC in Barcelona that she will ‘outline an “action plan” to put the region at the heart of the mobile industry it established and once dominated.’

She says there is €27 billion of investment needed to create a modern mobile telecoms market. The plan includes improving operators’ access to the spectrum they need for mobile services, as well as €50 million of funding for research to deliver “5G” mobile technology by 2020.

“What is missing now is a real telecoms single market,” Kroes will say. “Mobile needs a real single market. We are going to start using our EU Treaty powers to change the situation.”

Chief executives of the largest mobile groups have also backed the plans for a single European market, which in practice was at least likely to mean a single regulator and the chance for market consolidation on a European scale.